Give – Department of Chemistry

Your Gift Matters

Your gift, no matter the size, can provide important learning experiences for more than 14,000 students who take chemistry courses each year. It can support hands-on experience in the lab for undergraduate students, conference travel for graduate students, equipment, facilities, and our continuous drive to excel in research, teaching, and outreach. Every day, gifts from alumni, friends, and businesses change students' lives. Learn about our exceptional chemistry majors and graduate students, to see how your gift could make a difference.

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University of Wisconsin Foundation-Chemistry

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University of Wisconsin Foundation
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Milwaukee, WI 53278

Your Gifts Matter

New chemistry makes ‘magic’ drug improvements easier
In the last decade, scientists discovered a quirk of drug chemistry: If you add on a simple one-carbon building block to a drug, it can make the drug more potent, less toxic, or more stable.
Collaboration helps UW-Madison Chemists quickly evaluate technologies to clean the air
Individuals and businesses are scrambling to find new ways to protect themselves from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. With this interest, the effectiveness of new technologies that promise to improve indoor air quality has taken center stage. University of Wisconsin–Madison chemists have accepted the challenge of evaluating those technologies and the work is moving quickly, thanks to the lab’s partnership with HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) specialists at Johnson Controls.
Bertram and Bain Receive James W. Taylor Excellence Teaching Awards
The Department of Chemistry has chosen two recipients for the James W. Taylor Excellence Teaching Award - Professor Timothy Bertram and senior instructional technology specialist Dr. Rachel Bain. Like many events in the past year, the departmental gathering to present the award looked quite different. Rather than holding a large gathering on campus, the award ceremony was held over Zoom.
Chemistry students win numerous awards
It was a busy year for awards, despite the constraints of a pandemic. In May, the Department of Chemistry celebrated students, faculty and staff with an online awards and graduation event called Celebrating Student Success. Because of generous donors, the department was able to give almost $500,000 in student support. See the winners of department and other awards below.
More Why Gifts Matter posts

Meet the Badger Chemists You Help

Prof. Susanna Widicus Weaver brings a love of chemistry and expertise in astronomy
Vozza Professor of Chemistry Susanna Widicus Weaver arrived at UW–Madison in May to conduct research in prebiotic astrochemistry and on how life may form with the evolution of stars and planets. Weaver received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Illinois Wesleyan University (2000) and her Ph.D. in chemistry at California Institute of Technology (2005). She most recently was a professor of chemistry at Emory University.
Postdoc starts world-wide literature discussions
Morgan Howe, a new addition to Sam Pazicni’s group at the UW–Madison chemistry department, began her postdoctoral fellowship with a bang! She initiated a popular online literature discussion group, filling a need for chemists across the world to connect and learn virtually.
Grad Spotlight: Princess Merenini
Princess Merenini, a first-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, was one of the 2019 Pei Wang Fellowship award recipients. The Pei Wang Fellowship honors the late Pei Wang (Ph.D. 1952, chemistry) by gifting this award to honorable graduate students at UW–Madison. Merenini is an international student from Nigeria. She moved to the United States in 2016 to pursue her undergraduate education at Savannah State University (SSU). Growing up in Nigeria, Merenini was taught that there were only four “prestigious” career paths: medicine, law, engineering and pharmacy.
Undergrad Spotlight: Jennifer Sowin
Jennifer Sowin is an undergraduate chemistry major, who came to UW-Madison from St. Francis Xavier High School in Appleton, WI. What led you to the University of Wisconsin-Madison? …
Undergrad Spotlight: Wenqi Shen
Wenqi Shen, a first-generation undergraduate majoring in biochemistry, came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison from Beijing No.80 High School in China. What led you to the University of Wisconsin-Madison? …
Grad Spotlight: Nicholas M. Riley
Nicholas M. Riley is a graduate student from Louisville, KY, who attended the University of South Carolina as an undergraduate. He currently works with the Coon Research Group. Tell …
More Meet the Badger Chemists posts